Two New Years
by surestsmile
Summary: A look into the first two new years of Phillip's life. /Kamen Rider W/


Two New Years

It shouldn't be so nerve-wrecking, really, to bring Phillip out on new year's day so that they can pay respects to the local temple. Phillip seemed partially bemused by the men's kimono Shoutarou got for him ("I thought all of our clothes came from Windscale") and kept tripping on the straw sandals Shoutarou had put on his feet. Despite Shoutarou's occasional nightmares that they were going to get stormed in the middle of the night, really, nothing had happened in the past four months. Still, Shoutarou couldn't help feeling vaguely nervous anyway.

Most of the other visitors to the temple weren't really pay attention to them, simply milling around with their relations and friends after they prayed. It made Shoutarou think back on his own new year visit with Oya-san, how their only worry was that they have enough clientele to support their agency, and the joking around later that there's always a pet lost somewhere in Wind City to pay their bills. He kept a tight grip on Phillip's hand as they moved to the temple altar, letting go only to offer a little money and pray. Phillip looked on curiously, before copying Shoutarou's actions, clapping along and bowing his head.

"This is a very interesting custom," Phillip said as Shoutarou pulled him away to make way for other people. Shoutarou gave him a strange look, but Phillip wasn't making any noise about wanting to go and delve straight into research, instead quite placidly walking alongside him. The only odd thing Phillip was doing, really, was the frenetic swivelling of his head, as though he couldn't get enough of all the things that were happening around him. Shoutarou was almost doing the exact same thing, except he was watching out for...well, evil organization goons. If they were there, anyway.

There was a headache slowly building between his eyes, and he hadn't noticed that his grip had gotten too tight before Phillip's mild, "Ow," finally got his attention.

"S-sorry," Shoutarou said, and relaxed his grip, just a little. He didn't really want to cut Phillip's outing short, because he had been feeling a little guilty about keeping Phillip in all the time, even though the other boy didn't seem to mind. It just felt wrong, as though he made Phillip trade one prison for another.

There were street stalls lining the way out of the temple, so Shoutarou bought dango and taiyaki for Phillip to try. It ended up prompting a stream of muttering about bean paste and flour and caramel, but Shoutarou simply shoved a stick into Phillip's mouth, and that was the end of it. They sat down on one of the low walls while Phillip alternately ate and quietly investigated the differences between dango and taiyaki.

New year was supposed to be fun, Shoutarou knew, a time to celebrate renewal, but all he could focus on was whether anyone knew who Phillip really was, and whether they're simply waiting for this chance to snatch him. He fingered the Joker memory, hidden in his sleeve, and wondered how long he had to live in this state of near paranoia. Probably for as long as Phillip was out in public, unprotected and vulnerable. Even W wasn't much of a reassurance, because he'd still have to watch out for Phillip's unconscious body.

"Shoutarou?" Phillip's mouth was sticky with bean paste and crumbs, and Shoutarou sighed before taking the crumpled tissue in Phillip's hand and wiping his face clean. There really wasn't much else to do after prayers, unless they wanted to pick their fortunes for the year, and Shoutarou wasn't a big believer of luck.

"What do you want to do, Phillip?" The other boy gave him an almost shrewd gaze, before saying, "I think I'd like to go home now." Shoutarou felt a rush of relief when Phillip said that, but he still double-checked before going, "Okay then."

As expected, Phillip hit the Library as soon as they got back, and Shoutarou took the opportunity to change into more comfortable clothes and (re-)read his novels. The feeling of wariness was still there, although he hadn't gone to extreme means of taking alternate routes to throw any trackers off. Just an extremely scenic one, that's all. Besides, Phillip did had fun taking an impomptu tour around Wind City.

Later in the week, he would blame the outing when he was summarily locked out of Phillip's library ("there are 2,160,327 results for dango, not including alternates such as goma and kinako...") when he really needed some information on a case regarding food sabotage in a local bakery, swearing off bringing Phillip outside if it resulted in needless delays. But really, the truth was that Shoutarou was still terrified of losing the one thing Oya-san saved, and if the only way to keep him safe was to keep Phillip inside, away from everything and everyone, then Shoutarou would do it.

* * *

It was strange how everything changed after Akiko appeared, turning Shoutarou's carefully ordered life upside down with her questions and her habits and her inherent _Osaka-ness_. Phillip adjusted to her as well as he adjusted to anything; tuning out needless attempts at interaction until he found something either interesting or useful to take note of. Shoutarou, on the other hand, didn't have that ability to do so.

"It's new year's!" Akiko exclaimed, as though it was the answer to Shoutarou's empathetic, "No," when she suggested that they go out together, since they missed Christmas due to a Dopant attack. She had been very enthusiastic at that time too, and Shoutarou faintly wondered if it was a trait that defined the Narumi line. Oya-san didn't seem to be as persistent as his daughter at attending festivals, but Shoutarou remembered being dragged to dip for goldfish and watching his boss set off brilliant fireworks in the darkness.

"We could celebrate it _neshougatsu_-style," Shoutarou suggested wildly, while Akiko snagged Phillip's wrist and asked, "Hey, Phillip, you haven't gone out in a while, right? Properly? Do you even know how we celebrate new year's? Do you want to know?"

If it had been any other subject, Phillip would have fallen straight into that wily woman's clutches, but Shoutarou smirked instead. "Phillip knows all about new year's," he said, "After all, we went last year."

"So you did!" Akiko grinned, and then from behind her she pulled out a kimono which Shoutarou vaguely recognised used to belong to Phillip. "I thought it was strange that this was in the closet. It's not one of mine. Don't you guys buy all your clothes from Windscale?"

"I just like the brand, alright? You shouldn't go around opening people's closets!" Shoutarou shouted, and tried to reach out to grab the kimono, but Akiko pranced away, laughing. "This was in mine," she said, "looks like you forgot to take everything when you moved out, huh?"

"You kicked me out!"

"I'm the landlord," she reminded him, "and that was the only room with an adjoining bathroom. You don't want people to talk, do you? And I didn't kick you out of the agency, like I should! Anyway."

Phillip had already retreated behind his book while the two of them argued, but Akiko turned her attention back to him as she held up the kimono. "I'm not sure if this will fit," she said doubtfully, and Shoutarou did a hand signal that might have said something along the lines of, "DON'T ANSWER HER." when Phillip pleasantly chirped, "I've only worn that once."

Shoutarou could feel the force of Akiko's glare boring into his back even though he'd turn away fast enough to admire the lovely...wallpaper. Yes. The pattern was very nice and...Akiko marched up to him and hissed in his ear, "We are going out, because Phillip is not a shut-in even if you're treating him like one!"

"It's not like that!" Shoutarou protested, "You know Phillip, if he gets caught up in researching we're _never_ going to get anything done. It's a justified precaution!"

"Well then," Akiko smiled again, with a slight twist at the edge Shoutarou knew instinctively signalled that somewhere in the previous argument, he had already lost. "Since you mentioned that Phillip researched everything out of new year's, you shouldn't mind going since he won't be locked into the Library."

Shoutarou stared at her. "You're serious about this, aren't you." Akiko's smile grew even wider, before she tossed the kimono at him and airily said, "We'll go first thing in the morning."

First thing in the morning apparently meant staking out the temple until the stroke of midnight, so that Akiko could watch the 108 peals without being jostled, like she had been at the Osakan shrines. Shoutarou alternately yawned and surreptiously checked that the cotton was safely hidden in his ears, while poor Phillip looked literally stunned by the repeated clanging. Shoutarou felt sympathetic and would have offered half his cotton stash, except that Akiko was holding Phillip's hand this time and he wasn't sure if he could stick it into one of Phillip's ears without her catching him.

"This is why we didn't do this last year," Shoutarou tried to stage-whisper at Phillip, but ended up shouting in order to be heard and earning yet another glare from Akiko. He retreated and sulked until the bells faded, and then followed Akiko up to the offertory box, where he slipped Phillip a 5-yen coin. After prayers, Shoutarou wasn't surprised when Akiko took off immediately for the fortunes, enthusiastically shaking one out of the wooden tubes, or when she waved her fortune at him with the stamp of "Super Luck" on it.

"You should pick a fortune too!" Akiko said, but Shoutarou simply waved her off. She pouted and retaliated by giving Phillip some money to buy his own, despite Shoutarou's squawk of protest. Phillip seemed slightly intrigued by the idea of picking his fortune, shaking his stick out almost cautiously. Despite Shoutarou's unbelief, he still couldn't help peering over Phillip's shoulder when the other boy opened the slip of paper handed to him by the shrine maiden.

"Poor Luck," the stamp announced, followed by some advice concerning sudden visits from long-lost relatives, taking care of one's health and trying a new change of perspective. Akiko let out a soft, "Oh," then took Phillip's hand again and said brightly, "Well, we could always tie that to the rack there..."

Phillip smiled. "This is a really interesting custom," he echoed last year, and deftly pocketed the fortune. "I'd like to see if it'll come true." Akiko frowned at that, and looked to Shoutarou. The detective sighed and was about to comment that it's probably better not to tempt the gods by being so frivolous about a bad fortune, but then Phillip looked around and said, "Shoutarou, there are dango and taiyaki, right? I feel a little hungry."

Shoutarou shouldn't have been so easily distracted by the fact that Phillip actually wanted to eat, but he was. Akiko loudly suggested that they should go for soba instead, instead of eating non-traditional new year's food, and Phillip's eyes had lit up at the mention of a new item.

They got their soba at a street-hawker, and Shoutarou laughed unashamedly as Akiko tried to teach Phillip the proper way to eat cold soba, "Dip, swirl and slurp" and having to tuck a tissue over Phillip's kimono. When Phillip started to sneeze, Shoutarou put his foot down and said, "We should probably go home, where it's warm." To his mild surprise, Akiko didn't argue.

At the agency, Akiko bullied them into her room, switching on the small tv she purchased when she discovered that Shoutarou was backward as hell when it came to the media, and sat them down to watch the new year varieties. Shoutarou dozed on and off while Phillip accompanied Akiko throughout the night, watching along with her with rapt attention. When sunrise came, Akiko shrieked Shoutarou awake and he blearily looked on as the news channel chased the first sunrise all over Japan.

"This is how we celebrate new year's," Akiko said, almostly proudly, and Shoutarou thought that he really should retort that if Akiko had any problems, she should raise it up to him directly, but then Phillip's hand fell into his, curled slightly around his palm, and Shoutarou smiled instead.


End file.
